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BLUE RAIDER HALL OF FAME
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    • George Claxton

    Inducted: 1995
    Sports: Football

    A native of Shelbyville, Tenn., George Claxton was an MT four-year starter, three-time All-OVC selection for Blue Raider football and helped lead MT to two OVC titles. In 1965, Claxton was an All-OVC first-team pick as the Blue Raiders won the OVC Championship with a perfect 10-0 overall record. The league's coaches voted him an All-OVC first-team berth for the season. He was All-OVC in 1966 and 1967 and voted to the OVC All-time All-Conference team after the league's first 40 seasons in 1988. In his senior year, he was the team's alternate captain.

    After graduation, Claxton was an assistant football coach and head track coach at Franklin High School, Franklin, Tenn. He later was head football and head boys' basketball coach at Forrest High School in Chapel Hill, Tenn. He went on to be director of the Shelbyville Parks and Recreation program before settling into a successful career in insurance.

    Class of 2012

    Mike Caldwell
    Football

    Diane Cummings Turnham
    Athletic Administration

    Harry Gupton
    Basketball, Baseball

    Tawanya Mucker Wilson
    Basketball

    Jayhawk Owens
    Baseball

    History of the Hall of Fame

    In the early spring of 1975, a pair of long-time supporters of Middle Tennessee State University's athletic program decided that the University should honor its greatest athletes. Homer Pittard, alumni director, and Gene Sloan, public relations director, came up with the idea and asked sports information director Jim Freeman to join them in setting up an athletic hall of fame.

    After getting approval for the Hall of Fame from President M. G. Scarlett, the trio began laying the groundwork to select the first inductees. Others, including Bob Womack and Joe Nunley, were also involved.

    "We decided not to have categories but to put all candidates in one group," said Freeman. "We also decided against inducting a large group to start with and felt that three per year was the ideal number. That way, everyone got a good share of the spotlight."

    The nominating and voting for the first several years was done by members of the old "T" Club, now reorganized and called the Varsity Club. Nominations were solicited, and the the list of candidates was mailed to the voters. They selected Horace Jones, Charles "Bubber" Murphy and Teddy Morris as the initial inductees in 1976.

    The Blue Raider Hall of Fame was originally housed in the old Blue Raider Room under the west side of the football stadium. It had to be torn down when then stadium was expanded in 1998. After several years without a home, the Hall of Fame moved into the new Rose and Emmett Kennon Sports Hall of Fame building in 2004.